Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/07/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I requested that German Motors inspect my car to determine if I have a coolant leak, and I requested that they also inspect and airbag warning light on my dash. These were the only two observable issues with my car when I left it at their shop on 6/5/24 at 8:06 AM. My car was otherwise running and functioning well. I declined the recommended repairs for several reasons including wanting a second opinion on necessity of repairs given the apparent duplicity of needed repairs. With permission, I left my car overnight and returned to pick it up on 6/6/24 at approximately 12:15 PM. Upon entering my car in the German Motors parking lot and driving back to my workplace, my windows would not roll up or down, there was a new red dash warning light that appears to be a car on a service platform, my turns signals did not function, I was continually getting a dash warning light indicating that my drivers side door was not latched, and my key fob also does not lock my car any longer. All of these functioned properly when I brought my car in for servicing on the morning of 6/5/24. I spoke with *****, who represented himself as the shop owner at approximately 1:00 PM on 6/6/24 to explain my concerns. ***** failed to provide what I believe to be a valid explanation of why these functions failed on my car after I left the car in the care of German Motors on the morning o 6/5/24. He advised that he has no evidence that those functions were working properly when I left my car at German Motors outside of my word. I am requesting that German Motors compensate me $1,442.87 in the amount of the repairs ($1064.29) that they say I now need to fix the problems that did not exist prior to me leaving my car with them and a refund of the diagnostic fees ($378.58) as during the diagnostic, they damaged my car in a costly way. Alternatively, I would accept having my car repaired to the same functional condition that I dropped it off to German Motors in without charge.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/11/2024

  The customer is falsely accusing us of the issues she is describing above because she was unaware of them when she dropped her car off.  She had schedule her vehicle at our shop for a diagnostic report on two issues of concern to her but she was ignoring or disinterested in the many other warning lights that appeared on her dashboard.  Upon an immediate scan of the vehicle we noted that the module that controls all of the problems she is describing above was defective and not communicating with the rest of the car.  While the customer seems intent on blaming us for something simply because she had not noticed it prior this does not change the fact that we noticed it immediately upon receiving her vehicle at our establishment.  It is our duty and responsibility to notify the customer of our findings and that is what we did.  We have the diagnostic report showing the part had failed along with pictures on her dashboard to indicate the problem existed and was already effecting some of the systems she claims did not show any symptoms prior.  Thus far the customer has not provided any evidence that there is any damage caused by German Motors that would contradict our findings that the vehicle already had this problem.  A brief ****** search of the footwell module on a Mini will indicate that this is a very common problem.  Our diagnostic process identified the issue immediately also indicating several low voltage codes in several other systems of the vehicle.  Low voltage is one of the number one reasons why this module fails and we insist that we had nothing to do with the cause of the problem.  Several conversations with the customer were fruitless in explaining this to the customer she simply wanted to blame us for "damaging" her car without considering the evidence and facts.  At one point it was mentioned to her that the low voltage codes and a weak battery could easily be the cause and she disregarded the suggestion in its entirety as if our 45 years of experience in the automotive industry was insignificant to her.  Unfortunately for the customer a weak battery typically gets weaker over time and as this occurs a vehicle that is heavily dependent on voltage to operate will experience more and more problems as the battery decays further.  This could be the explanation as to why the customer had not noticed some of the symptoms.  In any event, this problem pre existed.  We notified the customer of our findings.  We have the digital proof that it is a problem and it will be impossible for the customer to claim that we caused this issue with any professional secondary opinions once all the evidence is considered.  While it may seem convenient for the customer to claim this nonsense it lacks in all credibility.  If we scan a vehicle and notice a problem immediately upon receiving it is conclusive and irrefutable that the problem was already present.    Please see the attached documents as supporting evidence to support our findings.  We will not be issuing a refund to the customer nor will we be paying for the myriad of problems she has with her vehicle.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/12/2024

   
  Complaint: 21814595
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  The business owner has repeatedly attempted to claim that they did not damage my car by arguing that my footwell control module was already damaged before I brought my car into their shop for two unrelated issues. His argument is that they already found that it was faulty when I brought my car there in Feb 2024 for an oil leak. This is not true, it was never noted as faulty or listed as a recommended repair. I have the full document from that inspection, which is too long to attach here, but I am attaching an image with the only recommendations/notes issues. FRM was not one of them.

  In addition, my car had none of the symptoms when I dropped it off that it had when they scanned the car, and the warning light that indicates an FRM issue (red warning light with a car on a platform) was not present on my dash. That was on only when I picked it up. The ONLY warning lights on my dash were a low fuel light because my fuel was low, a lightbulb symbol which would turn on upon starting and off upon driving, and the airbag light which was one of the two issues that I brought the car in for. I was not worried about the lightbulb warning because they had already told me that I had a few lights out back in February, which was not a concern as my brakes and headlights were working properly. So his statement that I was ignoring or didnt care about warning lights is a lie. I brought my car in for service each time I had a concern. The suspension and smoking was noted in other concerns in Feb, but the technician **** verbally informed me after the oil leak was repaired that it fixed the smoking and suspension issues.
  

  I also had my battery checked the day I picked my car up from German Motors and had my battery checked by a different professional, and the battery passed every test and was ruled out as a cause of car issues.

  I do not pretend to know how they damaged my FRM, but they did. Another certified professional who is an expert in FRM modules is currently testing and repairing the issue. 
  

  On top of everything else, the level of professionalism and customer service was extremely subpar. They knew the windows stopped operating after I left my car in their shop and they did not inform be until I came to get the keys and did not bother to offer to raise the windows until I was upset about it and in a hurry to get back to work before my lunch break ended. So now my car is a target of theft. Thank God I have a garage.

  I would be happy to provide additional images with context by email if needed.

  Sincerely,
  
  ******************************************

  Business Response

  Date: 06/13/2024

  We are terribly frustrated that the customer does not understand our findings and that she continues to insist we damaged her vehicle.  Being subject to false accusations of this nature is something we attempt to resolve very professionally and with sound logic and evidence.  Several of those attempts were made in an effort to resolve this situation with the customer.  In an effort to provide all of this information in a cordial fashion the customer was not receptive or kind in any way.  Her last email simply states that if we tried to contact her any further that she would consider that communication as "harrassment".  Given this information there is nothing further we can add.  If a vehicle comes to our shop and the immediate diagnostic report indicates that the footwell module was not communicating and that there were previous codes for "low voltage" then this data is irrefutable. It indicates the problem that the customer is blaming us for was already present.  It is unfortunate that the customer did not notice these issues or was unaware of them prior but this really has no bearing on what we found here as a process of diagnosing her vehicle.  Also, without the use of a *** factory scan tool it would have been nearly impossible for the customer to be aware of this issue anyway.  We insist that we did not damager the customers car and the customer has confessed that she really has no idea "how we damaged her vehicle" just that she believes we must have somehow.  This lack of evidence is the very basis for the problem here.  In our society it is generally not an acceptable practice to make an accusation of this nature without any evidential proof.  This is especially true when the evidence we have provided directly opposes the customers opinion on the matter.  Our evidence and our 40+ years of professional experience would prevail in any court of law.  We are so confident of this that if given the opportunity to provide all this information to the shop where the customer is currently having the vehicle repaired at we would gain their support as well.  After all is said and done the customer may not agree with the facts, but they cannot be changed or altered to suit her needs.  Had we damaged her vehicle we would be happy to remedy the situation free of charge but this is not at all what happened.  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/05/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In September 8 2023 my vehicle was brought to German Motors for repairs, and has been at the location till June 5 2024.which is today , on May 10 I came to German Motors to pick up vehicle, but vehicle was not ready for pick up due to repairs not done on the car . i had spoke with **** and told him could i retrieve some paperwork out the glovebox. so i could get some insurance on the car now that the car would be ready soon .that's when i notice the damage to the rear end of my vehicle . **** was present at the time of me seeing the damage to my car. After speaking with **** he told me to get estimate because the damage does look fresh and he would speak with the owner. I called May 29 to speak with the owner **** said the owner was not in the shop .and he had not spoken with the owner yet. May 31 2024 I called and spoke with ****. **** said he had spoken with the owner and the owner said he wouldn't entertain nothing of it and would not be liable due to the fact how long my vehicle been at there shop. and wasn't gonna look at any cameras to see if the damage happen on his property. so i ask to speak with the owner. as soon as the owner got on the phone he starting going off. Saying that he isn't gonna entertain that my car was damage at his shop and that my car came like that and if i continue that he would start charging me back fee for storage and if my vehicle wasn't there for this long this wouldn't even happen. I try to at lease ask the owner to look at the camera because the damage on my car was recently done .i have been to the shop a lot of times and it was not there till now . that's how i know. he still wasn't trying to fix the problem . he still made threats to charge me for back storage fee if i proceed with them repairing the damage to my car .which my car had been there long because one mechanic had heart is problems and there other mechanic went to *************** .I had brought a brand new strut to be replace a month ago and it still wasn't put on

  Business Response

  Date: 06/11/2024

  We are not going to issue the customer any amount of a refund nor will we be paying for the damage he noted to the rear of his vehicle.  It has been there ever since the vehicle arrived at our facility and the technician that has been handling the vehicle has and will testify to this fact.  The customer is not being truthful about why the vehicle has been at our facility for so long.  The main and only reason is due to the fact that he had great difficulty paying for the services we provided.  Secondly, the customer insisted on providing many of his own parts.  On several occasions the parts he provided were used or defective and needed to be replaced multiple times before any progress was made.  The situation had boiled over to the point where the customer had owed us a significant amount of money for doing the work completed thus far that we had decided we were not going to proceed with any further repairs on the vehicle until such time as the previous repairs were paid for in full.   This took the customer almost a year to complete.  We do not assume responsibility for vehicles left here over extended periods of time for lack of payment.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/12/2024

   
  Complaint: 21807287
  
  I am rejecting this response because: as of 11/02/2024 i came to german motors property and there was no damage to my vehicle . And and i want to request the camera video on 11/2/2024 the date my vehicle was service to prove that the damage  happen on german motors property 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************************

  Business Response

  Date: 06/12/2024

  11/2/2024 Is in 5 months time so we do not have video footage of things that happen in the future, nor would we have video footage dating back 6 months either.  What we know for certain is that we would have preferred this vehicle been picked up and paid for many months ago but the slow pay and resistance we received from the customer regarding parts he supplied on his own and the many issues this caused is the only reason why the vehicle sat at our location for such a long period of time.  The damage was already present on the vehicle so we will not be making any payments to the customer.  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Date of Transaction: 10/31/23, car was dropped off on 10/25/23.The car was previously serviced by this company. No problems.We took it in about a month later and when we picked it up there was body damage to the rear passenger side with a dent and scratches that were not there when it was dropped off. First, we paid the bill and as we pulled to a light immediately my husband who had dropped me off, BTW was told first $2,600.00 then different price which was supposed to be $1400.00 ( i was quoted that), then $300.00 over what I was told we exited in separate cars. My husband was out of his car and calling my phone stating that there was a visible dent in my car. The car had NO BODY DAMAGE when we dropped it off.The person that we deal with, ****, came out to the car and said I will not dispute this.We gave them the key and left the car there (paid in full), ."Supposed owner" calls and berates us calling us thieves, liars and crazy people, that this is" horseshit "says he has talked to multiple employees and nobody mentioned this damage but it had to be prior to dropping it off. Would not stop talking to listen and says this " It is like parking your car at ******* they are not going to pay". I have pictures of the car with no dent or scratches and also when they previously serviced it but today the owner was accusing us of being thieves and that I was crazy. Never acknowledged or seemed to know what was going, including mentioning a tow truck but my car was driven in by me, but squarely put this on us. I am not going to allow a bully to tell me he is not responsible for my car while it is being serviced. Ridiculous that we pay and then try to get money for a dent and some scratches. So we paid them for all the services for mechanical repairs and the owner goes off on us for almost an hour, the car was painted in August and no dents or scratches. Wondering, are they in with a body shop because he kept talking over us that we were thieves. Mr. ***** becoming quiet for a moment when I said I was going to file a police report after he said he had reviewed all the tapes and talked to everyone who had worked on or moved my *************** very wrong at German Motors.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/16/2023

  The customer has been contacted and we have discussed this matter via telephone and in person.  Nothing happened to their vehicle while it was in our possession.  We have provided the customers an opportunity to view all of our surveillance videos so they can investigate this matter personally.  We mentioned to them that if they could find proof on camera that their vehicle was damaged while we were repairing their vehicle that we would be happy to take responsibillity.  To date, no such evidence has been presented.  Our position is that we did not damage their vehicle and without any evidence to the contrary we are not responsible for the dent.  During a lengthy visit with the customer reviewing video recordings of their vehicle on our property there was no evidence discovered to suggest we had damaged their vehicle.  We have also spent several hours independently investigating the video surveillance footage with still not evidence to provide proof that the vehicle was damage while at our facility.  The customer was provided further opportunity to return and view the video surveillance as long as they like but they have not returned.  Our position remains the same as when we originally spoke to the customers. Without any evidence we will not be accused and held responsible for something that could have happened long before the customers vehicle ever arrived at our facility.  

  We believe we have satisfied every opportunity to proof our innocence in this matter.  We remain transparent in our handling of this situation by opening our doors to our customers to observe our surveillance footage so they can see for themselves that we did not damage their vehicle.  Despite this, the customers remain steadfast in their opinion that we damaged their vehicle.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

   
  Complaint: 20808441
  
  I am rejecting this response because his video which was inconclusive was poor quality, had many gaps in coverage as there were hours of times when the car was not in view.  Mr. **** was a lousy operator of his video equipment, and the resolution of video would never show anything he would accept.  Every time I would ask him to blow up the picture, we would note the poor quality and try to move on to another picture.  After over an hour and 45 minutes we were able to review about 45 minutes of video (his words which I have on a recording) because he was not experienced in operating his own video equipment and was wasting both of our time.  I'm getting timed out (30 minutes) so I will continue.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ********************/ Owner German Motors
  3379 *******************************************
  ************* 89109                                                                     November 16, 2023
  
  - We dropped the Audi A5 off on 10/26/2023 with no damage noted at the time of drop-off,
  - Upon pick up on 10/31/2023, we were shocked and upset to see the new body damage estimated at $1500 to repair
  - German Motors accepted the car without damage and that is how it should have been returned. 
  - Mr. **** wants us to provide proof the vehicle was damaged at his repair shop.  Although circumstantial and without hard proof (which is impossible to obtain), the timing of the damage points to the fact that the damage occurred during the 6 days while German Motors had possession of our vehicle, as it wasnt until we picked up the car after 6 days that the damage was first noted.
  - Mr. **** offered for us to review his video tapes to see if we could see when the vehicle was damaged at German Motors. 
  - I took him up on his offer to view his video tapes during the 6 days the vehicle was in his possession.  The 2 of us (Mr. **** and ***********************) spent over 1.5 hours reviewing poor quality video on 11/6/2023, providing no conclusive proof of when the damage occurred.  It should be noted the video did not provide the resolution required for a conclusive result and there were large gaps of time when the vehicle was not in sight of his cameras large gaps in video coverage.
  - Also of note, prior to picking up the car, ***** was quoted an estimated repair cost of $1,400.  Upon pick-up, I was told the bill was over $2,600.  After several minutes of discussion and the admission that parts were duplicated on our bill, the cost came down to $1,750. 
  - Mr. **** asked me if they eventually got the cost right!  How would I know? 
  - We request German Motors do the right thing and have our car returned to the same condition in which we brought it to them.
  - As a 69-year-old senior citizen and US Air Force veteran of over 22 years, I have never been treated this way.
  
  **** and *************************
  ************* - ****
  ************* - *****

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

  These attachments are the invoice received from German Motors.  The owner initials his own Terms of Service (NRS violation) and were never authorized by me.  Also, one of his Terms of Service states there will be a 2.5% surcharge for using a Credit Card (NRS Violation).  If i had known that added cost, I would have paid in cash to save the $70 in fees.  Never was that disclosed as required by law.  Numerous violations discovered during our research of this horrible experience.  Request German Motors pay the $1500 to have our damaged car repaired.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

  These attachments are the invoice received from German Motors.  The owner initials his own Terms of Service (NRS violation) and were never authorized by me.  Also, one of his Terms of Service states there will be a 2.5% surcharge for using a Credit Card (NRS Violation).  If i had known that added cost, I would have paid in cash to save the $70 in fees.  Never was that disclosed as required by law.  Numerous violations discovered during our research of this horrible experience.  Request German Motors pay the $1500 to have our damaged car repaired.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

  These attachments are the invoice received from German Motors.  The owner initials his own Terms of Service (NRS violation) and were never authorized by me.  Also, one of his Terms of Service states there will be a 2.5% surcharge for using a Credit Card (NRS Violation).  If i had known that added cost, I would have paid in cash to save the $70 in fees.  Never was that disclosed as required by law.  Numerous violations discovered during our research of this horrible experience.  Request German Motors pay the $1500 to have our damaged car repaired.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

  These attachments are the invoice received from German Motors.  The owner initials his own Terms of Service (NRS violation) and were never authorized by me.  Also, one of his Terms of Service states there will be a 2.5% surcharge for using a Credit Card (NRS Violation).  If i had known that added cost, I would have paid in cash to save the $70 in fees.  Never was that disclosed as required by law.  Numerous violations discovered during our research of this horrible experience.  Request German Motors pay the $1500 to have our damaged car repaired.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/17/2023

  The attached is an invoice from German Motors from 10/2/2023, showing we are repeat customers.  No issues with this ************ 2 weeks earlier and no dent noted.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/21/2023

  Unfortunately, the customer is continuing to falsely accuse our establishment of wrongdoing without basis or merit.  While they may claim that they did not authorize these terms our copy of the invoice indicates otherwise as we have the customers signature and we keep that on file for situations such as this.  Also, the owners initials are not an NRS violation as they are included to indicate that a contract has been entered by two parties.  This is a customary tradition whenever two parties agree to terms.  A contract is binding when both parties agree and sign a document.  That is what we have in hand.  

  Secondly, we did NOT charge the customer a fee for Credit Card processing.  While we may reserve the right to do so we did not in this case.  The fees included on this transaction are for customary environmental and shop fees and that is all.  This is a normal process in the automotive repair industry.  This is clearly indicated on our invoice where it shows the fees were for "Environmental Fees/Shop Supplies".  The customer has not provided any evidence that they were charged for a "credit card fee" for processing and that is because they were not.  What is prevalent is that the customer is continuing the theme of blaming others without presenting the truth, facts, or evidence.  

  We did not damage their car nor did we commit an NRS violation by signing our part of the repair order indicating our intention to uphold our terms of the contract.  We did not charge the customer for a processing fee to utilize their credit card.  We will not be refunding them for repairs.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/26/2023

   
  Complaint: 20808441
  
  I am rejecting this because German Motors response is not accurate. See the response to his 11/22/23 attached.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/11/2024

  I don't care what he says he has a responsibility to provide us with his business liability insurance and per his own bizarre answer he has hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank and he does not want to have a claim on his insurance because his rates with double or triple.

  He wants us to take him to small claims court.  He had his nephew work on my car.  He is an outright liar.  He is going to have a lot of trouble coming his way because his misogynistic attitude towards woman and his bizarre lies about taking his kids (two adult daughters, really) trick or treating when we initially addressed the dent was crazy.

  Crazy like a fox, but this one is going to get into the chicken coop of his own lies.  

  He says come look at my tapes but he cannot run the machine it continued to go backwards, the vehicle was not in view and he refuses to give us his shopkeeper insurance. We are owed that.  How utterly dissapointing he hides behind the BBB and just makes one statement and is off the hook, not so fast.

  Take another look because the vehicle was undamaged and he got his money for the repair.  We have him recorded, his is a total fraud of a businessman.